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Abstract:

A device may manage fixed wireless installations. The device may receive
data relating to the fixed wireless installations, where the data is
received from a number of sources, including the fixed wireless
installations and network devices used to implement a long term evolution
(LTE) cellular network to which the fixed wireless installations connect.
The device may analyze the data to determine optimizations to improve the
operation of one or more of the fixed wireless installations or the LTE
cellular network. The device may change, in response to the analysis, a
configuration of at least one of the fixed wireless installations and at
least one of the network devices.

Claims:

1. A device implemented method comprising: receiving, by the device, data
relating to operation of fixed wireless installations, the data being
received from a plurality of sources, including the fixed wireless
installations and network devices used to implement a long term evolution
(LTE) cellular network to which the fixed wireless installations connect;
storing, by the device, the data; analyzing, by the device, the data to
determine optimizations to improve the operation of one or more of the
fixed wireless installations or the LTE cellular network; and changing,
by the device and in response to the analysis, a configuration of at
least one of the fixed wireless installations and at least one of the
network devices.

2. The method of claim 1, where the data relating to the operation of the
fixed wireless installations includes data, from gateways in the LTE
cellular network, relating to network traffic from the fixed wireless
installations.

3. The method of claim 1, where the data relating to the operation of the
fixed wireless installations includes data, from a home subscriber
service or a policy charging and rules function server in the LTE
cellular network, relating to accounting and policy information of the
fixed wireless installations.

4. The method of claim 1, where the data relating to the operation of the
fixed wireless installations includes data from devices within the fixed
wireless installations.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: providing a graphical
interface to present a unified view of the data to administrators.

6. The method of claim 1, where receiving the data further includes:
receiving the data through an Internet Protocol (IP) network.

7. The method of claim 1, where the fixed wireless installations each
include customer premise locations that connect to the LTE cellular
network and to a satellite network.

8. The method of claim 1, where the analyzing includes: determining,
based on real-time data received by the device, whether an exceptional
event has occurred with respect to the fixed wireless installations.

9. The method of claim 8, where the determined exceptional event includes
one or more of: unusually low bandwidth available to one of the fixed
wireless installations; a power outage at one of the fixed wireless
installations; a failing device at one of the fixed wireless
installations; poor radio connectivity to one of the fixed wireless
installations; a base station, in the LTE network, nearing capacity of a
radio interface; or exceptionally high data usage by one of the fixed
wireless installations.

10. A system comprising: a device manager to communicate with devices in
a plurality of fixed wireless installations that each receive a broadband
connection through a long term evolution (LTE) cellular network; and a
network operations component to: store consolidated data relating to the
fixed wireless installations and data relating to operation of the LTE
cellular network with respect to the fixed wireless installations, and
reconfigure the LTE cellular network and at least one of the fixed
wireless installations to optimize, based on the consolidated data, the
broadband connection of the at least one of the fixed wireless
installations with respect to the LTE cellular network.

11. The system of claim 10, where the data relating to the operation of
the fixed wireless installations includes data, from gateways in the LTE
cellular network, relating to network traffic from the fixed wireless
installations.

12. The system of claim 11, where the consolidated data includes data,
from a home subscriber service or a policy charging and rules function
server in the LTE cellular network, relating to accounting and policy
information of the plurality of fixed wireless installations.

13. The system of claim 11, where the consolidated data includes data
from devices within the fixed wireless installations.

14. The system of claim 11, where the network operations component
further includes: a viewer component to provide a graphical interface to
present a unified view of the consolidated data to administrators.

15. The system of claim 11, where the network operations component is
connected to the device manager and the LTE cellular network through an
Internet Protocol (IP) network.

16. The system of claim 11, where the network operations component is
further to: determine, based on real-time data received as part of the
consolidated data, whether an exceptional event has occurred with respect
to the fixed wireless installations.

17. The system of claim 16, where the determined exceptional event
includes one or more of: unusually low bandwidth available to one of the
fixed wireless installations, a power outage at one of the fixed wireless
installations, a failing device at one of the fixed wireless
installations; poor radio connectivity to one of the fixed wireless
installations; a base station, in the LTE network, nearing capacity of a
radio interface; or exceptionally high data usage by one of the fixed
wireless installations.

18. A computer-readable medium containing programming instructions
executable by one or more processing units, the computer-readable medium
containing instructions to: receive data relating to operation of fixed
wireless installations, the data being received from a plurality of
sources, including the fixed wireless installations and network devices
used to implement a long term evolution (LTE) cellular network to which
the fixed wireless installations connect; analyze the data to determine
optimizations to improve the operation of one or more of the fixed
wireless installations or the LTE cellular network; and change, in
response to the analysis, a configuration of at least one of the fixed
wireless installations and at least one of the network devices.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, where the data relating to
the operation of the fixed wireless installations includes data, from
gateways in the LTE cellular network, relating to network traffic from
the fixed wireless installations.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, where the data relating to
the operation of the fixed wireless installations includes data, from a
home subscriber service or a policy charging and rules function server in
the LTE cellular network, relating to accounting and policy information
of the fixed wireless installations.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, where the data relating to
the operation of the fixed wireless installations includes data from
devices within the fixed wireless installations.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, where the fixed wireless
installations each include customer premise locations that connect to the
LTE cellular network and to a satellite network.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, where the programming
instructions to analyze the data further include instructions to:
determine, based on received real-time data, whether an exceptional event
has occurred with respect to the fixed wireless installations.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, where the determined
exceptional event includes one or more of: unusually low bandwidth
available to one of the fixed wireless installations; a power outage at
one of the fixed wireless installations; a failing device at one of the
fixed wireless installations; poor radio connectivity to one of the fixed
wireless installations; a base station, in the LTE network, nearing
capacity of a radio interface; or exceptionally high data usage by one of
the fixed wireless installations.

Description:

BACKGROUND

[0001] Bundled media services (e.g., combination packages of television,
telephone, and broadband Internet services) have been successfully
offered to households with wired connections to service provider
networks. Households in areas without such wired connections (e.g.,
customers in regions that cannot be reached via conventional
communication media, such as optical cables, copper cables, and/or other
fixed wire-based technologies) may rely on fixed wireless services for
some of these services (e.g., broadband access). However, previous
generations of fixed wireless services have generally been unsuccessful.
Expensive network equipment and customer premises equipment (CPE), high
CPE installation costs, use of proprietary technology, and low data rates
are among some of the reasons that these fixed wireless services remained
unpopular.

[0002] As wireless network data rates improve using fourth generation (4G)
technologies, such as long term evolution (LTE), network data rates have
become more attractive for wireless networks that include fixed wireless
devices. Fixed wireless installations, however, may place different
demands on the wireless network than traditional mobile wireless devices.
It may thus be important to be able to effectively manage and set
policies for the fixed wireless installations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0003]FIG. 1 is a diagram of an example environment in which systems
and/or methods described herein may be implemented;

[0004] FIG. 2 is a diagram of an example customer premise network;

[0005]FIG. 3 is a diagram of example components of a combined gateway of
a customer premise network;

[0006] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of network devices in a
wireless network;

[0011] The following detailed description refers to the accompanying
drawings. The same reference numbers in different drawings may identify
the same or similar elements.

[0012] Systems and/or methods described herein may provide for effective
management and control of fixed wireless installations. The fixed
wireless installations may include services such as broadband and
telephone provided through a cellular wireless network. A device manager,
which may connect to the fixed wireless installations through an Internet
Protocol (IP) network, may receive status information from and update
configurations of the fixed wireless installations. A network operations
center may receive the status information from the device manager as well
as other information, received from devices in the wireless network,
relating to the operation of the fixed wireless installations. The
network operations center may automatically, or in response to actions
from an administrator, optimize operation of the wireless network and/or
the fixed wireless installations.

[0013]FIG. 1 is a diagram of an example environment 100 in which systems
and/or methods described herein may be implemented. As illustrated,
environment 100 may include customer premise networks 110, mobile devices
120, a wireless network 130, a network 140, a device manager 150, and a
network operations component 160.

[0014] Customer premise networks 110 may include one or more devices
connected to each other and to wireless network 130. In some
implementations, customer premise networks 110 may also include
connections to other networks, such as a connection, via a satellite
dish, to a satellite network. Customer premise networks 110 may be
associated with a fixed location, such as the home of a customer, and may
thus be fixed wireless installations. Devices in a customer premise
network 110 may include, for example, set-top boxes (STBs), televisions,
computers, and home networking equipment (e.g., routers, cables,
splitters, local gateways, etc.). Devices within each customer premise
network 110 may be connected via wired (e.g., coaxial cable,
Telecommunications Industry Association category 5 ("cat 5") cable, etc.)
or wireless connections (e.g., using network devices such as those
available under the IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN standards).

[0015] In general, each customer premise network 110 may connect, through
a radio link, to wireless network 130. Through the connection, the
customer premise network 110 may obtain data services, such as telephone
and broadband services. The data services may be shared among devices in
each customer premise network 110, such as a broadband delivered to
multiple computers, gaming systems, security monitor systems, telephone
lines, etc., in customer premise network 110.

[0016] Mobile devices 120 may include portable computing and communication
devices, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), a smart phone, a
cellular phone, a laptop with an integrated connectivity to a cellular
wireless network, etc. Mobile devices 120 may connect, through a radio
link, to wireless network 130.

[0017] Wireless network 130 may include a network that provides
connectivity to customer premise networks 110 and mobile devices 120.
Wireless network 130 may represent, for example, a cellular network
operated by a cellular provider. In one implementation, wireless network
130 may include a long term evolution (LTE) network that provides
wireless services. Although called a "wireless" network, the wireless
portion of wireless network 130 may refer to the radio interfaces
provided by wireless network 130 to customer premise networks 110 and
mobile devices 120. Connectivity between devices in wireless network 130
may be provided as wired and/or wireless connections.

[0018] Network 140 may include a local area network (LAN), a wide area
network (WAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), an intranet, the
Internet, an optical fiber (or fiber optic)-based network, or a
combination of networks. In one implementation, network 140 may be a
packet-based network, such as an IP network.

[0019] Device manager 150 may include one or more server devices, or other
types of computation or communication devices, that communicate with
customer premise networks 110 to receive information relating to the
operation of customer premise networks 110 and/or to configure one or
more devices in customer premise networks 110. Thus, device manager 150
may act to manage one or more of the devices within customer premise
network 110. As part of managing the devices within customer premise
network 110, device manager 150 may receive information relating to the
operational state of devices within customer premise network 110. For
example, device manager 150 may store configuration information relating
to the communication settings for the radio interface to wireless network
130, information relating to the stability of customer premise network
110, or other information that may be useful in managing or optimizing
the operation of customer premise network 110. In one implementation,
device manager 150 may communicate with devices in customer premise
networks 110 using the TR-069 remote device management standard.

[0020] Network operations component 160 may include one or more server
devices, or other types of computation or communication devices, that
enable the automatic or manual administration of wireless network 130 and
customer premise networks 110. Through network operations component 160,
administrators may view information relating to the status of customer
premise networks 110 and devices in wireless network 130 that relate to
customer premise networks 110, perform data management and analysis
functions relating to customer premise networks 110, control network
policy enforcement in wireless network 130, and/or perform optimizations
for applications being used by devices in customer premise networks 110.
The operation of network operations component 160 will be described in
more detail below.

[0021] Although FIG. 1 shows example components of environment 100, in
other implementations, environment 100 may contain fewer components,
different components, differently arranged components, and/or additional
components than those depicted in FIG. 1. Alternatively, or additionally,
one or more components of environment 100 may perform one or more other
tasks described as being performed by one or more other components of
environment 100.

[0022] FIG. 2 is a diagram of an example customer premise network 110
according to an implementation described herein. Customer premise network
110 may include a combined gateway 115, which may be installed externally
to customer premises network 110, and may include an outdoor broadband
unit 200 and a satellite antenna 202. A coaxial cable 204 may connect
combined gateway 115 to the indoor portion of customer premise network
110. Customer premise network 110 may further include coaxial splitters
210-1 and 210-2 (referred to herein collectively as "coaxial splitters
210" or generically as "coaxial splitter 210"), a power injector 220,
set-top boxes (STBs) 230-1 and 230-2 (referred to herein collectively as
"STBs 230" or generically as "STB 230"), televisions 240-1 and 240-2
(referred to herein collectively as "televisions 240"), a coax/Cat 5
converter 250, a local router 260, and user devices 270-1 and 270-2
(referred to herein collectively as "user devices 270" or generically as
"user device 270"). One outdoor broadband unit 200, two coaxial splitters
210, one power injector 220, two STBs 230, two televisions 240, one
coax/Cat 5 converter 250, one local router 260, and two user devices 270
have been illustrated in FIG. 2 for simplicity. In practice, there may be
more (or fewer) outdoor broadband units 200, satellite antennas 202,
coaxial splitters 210, power injectors 220, STBs 230, televisions 240,
coax/Cat 5 converters 250, local routers 260, and/or user devices 270.

[0023] Outdoor broadband unit 200 may include one or more data processing
and/or data transfer devices, such as a gateway, a router, a modem, a
switch, a firewall, a network interface card (NIC), a hub, a bridge, a
proxy server, an optical add-drop multiplexer (OADM), or some other type
of device that processes and/or transfers data. In one example, outdoor
broadband unit 200 may include a wireless gateway that provides a
convergence point between wireless protocols (e.g., associated with a
base station) and IP protocols (e.g., associated with user devices 270).
Outdoor broadband unit 200 may be physically deployed with satellite
antenna 202 (e.g., on a roof or a side wall of a house associated with
customer premises network 110) as part of combined gateway 115. For
example, outdoor broadband unit 200 may utilize a pre-existing or a new
satellite TV installation in a way that both broadband (over LTE) service
and satellite TV are brought indoors (e.g., inside the customer premises)
over a coaxial cable 204.

[0024] Satellite antenna 202 may provide an interface for television
service broadcast from satellites. In one implementation, satellite
antenna 202 may provide an entry point for a network (e.g., customer
premises network 110) that conforms to standards of the Multimedia over
Coax Alliance (MoCA). Generally, MoCA-compliant devices may be used to
implement a home network on existing coaxial cable, using, for example,
orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation that divides
data into several parallel data streams or logical channels. Channel
stacking technology, such as Single Wire Multiswitch (SWiM) technology,
may be used to allocate logical channels using frequency blocks for
user-selected programming to the SWiM compatible devices (e.g., STBs
230). Satellite antenna 202 may communicate with STB 230 to identify
which blocks of channels can be used to send television signals to that
particular STB 230.

[0025] Coaxial splitters 210 may include conventional splitting
technologies to filter LTE and satellite TV signals. In one
implementation, each coaxial splitter 210 may include a SWiM splitter.
For example, coaxial splitters 210 may facilitate allocating logical
channels using different frequency blocks for viewer-selected television
programming and broadband signals to the SWiM-compatible STBs 230 and/or
local router 260.

[0026] Power injector 220 may include a conventional mechanism for
injecting DC power in a coaxial cable to power remotely-located devices,
such as outdoor broadband unit 200. Use of power injector 220 may allow
components of outdoor broadband unit 200 to be powered via a coaxial
cable (e.g., coaxial cable 204) and eliminate the need for additional
wiring.

[0027] STB 230 may include a device that receives and/or processes video
content (e.g., from a satellite TV provider via satellite antenna 202),
and provides the video content to television 240 or another device. STB
230 may also include decoding and/or decryption capabilities and may
further include a digital video recorder (DVR) (e.g., a hard drive). In
one example implementation, STB 230 may be incorporated directly within
television 240. In another implementation, STB 230 and/or television 240
may be replaced with a computing device (e.g., a personal computer, a
laptop computer, a tablet computer, etc.), a cable card, a TV tuner card,
or a portable communication device (e.g., a mobile telephone or a
personal digital assistant (PDA)). In one implementation, STB 230 may
conform to MoCA and SWiM standards.

[0028] Television 240 may include a television monitor that is capable of
displaying video content, television programming, content provided by STB
230, and/or content provided by other devices (e.g., a digital video disk
(DVD) player, a video camera, etc., not shown) connected to television
240. Coax-to-Cat 5 converter 250 may include a conventional device to
convert incoming signals from coaxial cables to outgoing signals on Cat 5
cables.

[0029] Local router 260 may include a device that may provide connectivity
between equipment within customer premises (e.g., user devices 270) and
between the customer premises equipment and an external network (e.g.,
network 130). In one implementation, local router 260 may include a
wireless access point that employs one or more short-range wireless
communication protocols for a wireless personal area network (WPAN)
and/or a wireless local area network (WLAN), such as, for example, IEEE
802.15 (e.g., Bluetooth) and IEEE 802.11 (e.g., Wi-Fi). In other
implementations, different short-range wireless protocols and/or
frequencies may be used. Local router 260 may also include one or more
wired (e.g., Ethernet) connections. In one implementation, local router
260 may include a USB Ethernet Router that is capable of meeting LTE
quality of service (QoS) standards.

[0030] User device 270 may include any device that is capable of
communicating with customer premises network 110 via local router 260.
For example, user device 270 may include a mobile computation and/or
communication device, such as a laptop computer, a radiotelephone, a
personal communications system (PCS) terminal (e.g., that may combine a
cellular radiotelephone with data processing and data communications
capabilities), a PDA (e.g., that can include a radiotelephone, a pager,
Internet/intranet access, etc.), a wireless device, a smart phone, a
global positioning system (GPS) device, a content recording device (e.g.,
a camera, a video camera, etc.), etc. In another example, user device 270
may include a fixed (e.g., provided in a particular location, such as
within a customer's home) computation and/or communication device, such
as a laptop computer, a personal computer, a tablet computer, a gaming
system, etc.

[0031] Although FIG. 2 shows example components of a customer premise
network 110, in other implementations, customer premises network 110 may
contain fewer components, different components, differently arranged
components, and/or additional components than those depicted in FIG. 2.
Alternatively, or additionally, one or more components of customer
premises network 110 may perform one or more other tasks described as
being performed by one or more other components of customer premises
network 110.

[0032]FIG. 3 is a diagram of example components of combined gateway 115
of customer premises network 110. As illustrated, combined gateway 115
may include outdoor broadband unit 200 and satellite antenna 202. Outdoor
broadband unit 200 may include a radio frequency (RF) antenna 310, a LTE
module 320, and a broadband home router (BHR) 330, all housed in a radome
340.

[0033] RF antenna 310 may include an antenna to transmit and/or receive RF
signals over the air. RF antenna 310 may, for example, receive RF signals
from LTE module 320/BHR 330 and transmit the RF signals over the air.
Also, RF antenna 310 may, for example, receive RF signals over the air
and provide them to LTE module 320/BHR 330. In one implementation, for
example, LTE module 320/BHR 330 may communicate with a base station
connected to a network (e.g., wireless network 130) to send and/or
receive signals from user devices 270. In implementations herein, RF
antenna 310 may be enclosed by radome 340, integrated with radome 340, or
external to radome 340. While one RF antenna 310 is shown in FIG. 3,
outdoor broadband unit 200 may include more than one antenna in other
implementations.

[0035] BHR 330 may include a device for buffering and forwarding data
packets toward destinations. For example, BHR 330 may receive data
packets from wireless network 130 (e.g., via LTE module 320) and forward
the data packets toward user devices 270. In addition, BHR 330 may
receive data packets from user devices 270 (e.g., via local router 260)
and forward the data packets toward recipient devices (e.g., service
provider 140) via network 130. BHR 330 may include a bridge device to
receive signals from LTE module 320 via a wired universal serial bus
(USB) connection and convert the signals to an Ethernet over coax signal.
The Ethernet over coax signal may be assigned a logical channel (e.g.,
according to SWiM guidelines) and may be combined with coaxial input from
satellite antenna 202. In one implementation, the output from BHR 330 may
be inserted in a Mid-RF MoCA channel that is separate from the 950 MHz to
2150 MHz range of a typical satellite TV system.

[0037] Combined gateway 115 may be integrated with the SWiM environment
associated with satellite antenna 202 to provide both TV service and
broadband wireless service. With this architecture, combined gateway 115
may require only one coax line leading from outdoor broadband unit
200/satellite antenna 202. This single coaxial line may feed the in-home
coaxial installation to deliver satellite TV service and LTE service to
corresponding STBs 230 and user devices 270 (e.g., as shown in FIG. 2).
Components of outdoor broadband unit 200, such as RF antenna 310, LTE
module 320, and BHR 330, may be powered using coax cable 204.

[0038] Although FIG. 3 shows example components of combined gateway 115,
in other implementations, combined gateway 115 may contain fewer
components, different components, differently arranged components, and/or
additional components than depicted in FIG. 3. Alternatively, or
additionally, one or more components of combined gateway 115 may perform
one or more other tasks described as being performed by one or more other
components of combined gateway 115. In one alternative implementation,
one or more functions of combined gateway 115 may moved to another
location, such as internal to the customer premise. For example, a bridge
may be installed in combined gateway 115 instead of BHR 330. The bridge
may function to combine coaxial input from satellite antenna 202 with the
output from LTE module 320 into a single coax line, which may be
forwarded to a broadband router that is installed inside the customer
premise.

[0039] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of network devices in
wireless network 130. Wireless network 130 may include base stations
(eNBs) 410, a serving gateway (SGW) 420, a packet data network gateway
(PGW) 430, a policy charging and rules function (PCRF) server 440, and a
home subscriber server (HSS) 450. Although three base stations 410, one
SGW 420, one PGW, one PCRF server 440, and one HSS 450 are shown in FIG.
4, wireless network 130 may include additional or fewer of these devices.
Additionally, wireless network 130 may include additional network
components that are not illustrated in FIG. 4.

[0040] Base stations 410 may provide the radio interface to transmit and
receive data with customer premise networks 110 and mobile devices 120.
In one implementation, base stations 410 may utilize LTE standards
operating in a 700 MHz frequency band (i.e., base stations 410 may each
be a base station in a LTE network). Each base station 410 may be
associated with one or more geographical service areas surrounding base
station 410. The service areas may be referred to as wireless "cells" or
"sectors" that are defined by the radio range of a base station 410.

[0041] SGW 420 may be network device that forwards and routes data to and
from base stations 410 and PGW 124. SGW 420 may also serve as the local
mobility anchor for inter-base station handovers.

[0042] PCRF server 430 may access subscriber databases and other resources
to make policy decisions relating to subscribers (i.e., customer premise
networks 110 or mobile devices 120). The policy decisions may relate to,
for example, quality of service (QoS) decisions and charging rules.

[0043] PGW 440 may provide connectivity to external networks, such as
packet network 140. A user of wireless network 130 may have simultaneous
connectivity with more than one PGW to multiple additional networks. PGW
440 may perform, for example, policy enforcement, packet filtering for
each user, charging support, lawful interception, and/or packet
screening.

[0044] HSS 450 may include a database that supports network entities that
handle voice over IP (VoIP) calls. HSS 450 may include subscriber
profiles, subscriber location information, and subscriber IP information.
HSS 450 may also authentication and authorization of subscribers, such as
by authenticating a customer premise network 110 by authenticating BHR
330 or LTE module 320 when the when outdoor broadband unit 200 is
initially turned on.

[0045] Although FIG. 4 shows example components of wireless network 130,
in other implementations, wireless network 130 may contain fewer
components, different components, differently arranged components, and/or
additional components than depicted in FIG. 4. Alternatively, or
additionally, one or more components of wireless network 130 may perform
one or more other tasks described as being performed by one or more other
components of wireless network 130.

[0047] Bus 510 may permit communication among the components of device
500. Processing unit 520 may include one or more processors or
microprocessors that interpret and execute instructions. In other
implementations, processing unit 520 may be implemented as or include one
or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field
programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or the like.

[0048] Memory 530 may include a random access memory (RAM) or another type
of dynamic storage device that stores information and instructions for
execution by processing unit 520, a read only memory (ROM) or another
type of static storage device that stores static information and
instructions for the processing unit 520, and/or some other type of
magnetic or optical recording medium and its corresponding drive for
storing information and/or instructions.

[0049] Input device 540 may include a device that permits an operator to
input information to device 500, such as a keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, a
pen, a microphone, one or more biometric mechanisms, and the like. Output
device 550 may include a device that outputs information to the operator,
such as a display, a speaker, etc.

[0050] Communication interface 560 may include any transceiver-like
mechanism that enables device 500 to communicate with other devices
and/or systems. For example, communication interface 560 may include
mechanisms for communicating with other devices, such as other devices of
environment 100, customer premises network 110, wireless network 130,
and/or network 140.

[0051] As described herein, device 500 may perform certain operations in
response to processing unit 520 executing software instructions contained
in a computer-readable medium, such as memory 530. A computer-readable
medium may be defined as a non-transitory memory device. A memory device
may include space within a single physical memory device or spread across
multiple physical memory devices. The software instructions may be read
into memory 530 from another computer-readable medium or from another
device via communication interface 560. The software instructions
contained in memory 530 may cause processing unit 520 to perform
processes described herein. Alternatively, hardwired circuitry may be
used in place of or in combination with software instructions to
implement processes described herein. Thus, implementations described
herein are not limited to any specific combination of hardware circuitry
and software.

[0052] Although FIG. 5 shows example components of device 500, in other
implementations, device 500 may contain fewer components, different
components, differently arranged components, or additional components
than depicted in FIG. 5. Alternatively, or additionally, one or more
components of device 500 may perform one or more other tasks described as
being performed by one or more other components of device 500.

[0053] FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram illustrating example functional
components of network operations component 160. In one implementation,
network operations component 160 may be implemented by a cluster of
computing devices, such as devices 500. Network operations component 160
may be, for example, a data center staffed by a number of administrators
that may act to monitor, provision, and optimize the fixed wireless
installations of customer premise networks 110. Network operations
component 160 may include consolidated fixed wireless (FW) installation
data 610, a unified FW installation viewer component 620, and an analysis
component 630.

[0054] Consolidated FW installation data 610 may include information,
relating to customer premise networks 110, received from a number of
sources in environment 100. Consolidated fixed FW installation data 610
may generally be used to monitor and manage the operation of customer
premise networks 110. As shown in FIG. 6, examples of the sources that
may be used to form consolidated FW installation data 610 include:
network data from PGW 440, device data from device manager 150, and
accounting and policy data from HSS 450 and/or PCRF server 430.

[0055] Consolidated FW installation data 610 may include network data from
PGW 440. The network data may include information relating to the
communications of a particular customer premise network 110 with a packet
network, such as network 140. The network data may include, for instance:
information relating to the bandwidth used by a customer premise network
110, information describing the quality of service of the data traffic
provided to the customer premise network 110, protocols or applications
used by the customer premise network 110, information relating to the
operation of base stations 410 with respect to the customer premise
network 110, or other information describing the interaction of a
customer premise network 110 with one or more components of wireless
network 130 and/or network 140. In some implementations, the network data
may be received from sources other than PGW 440, such as from SGW 420 or
base stations 410.

[0056] Consolidated FW installation data 610 may additionally include
device data from device manager 150. As previously mentioned, device
manager 150 may receive information relating to the operational state of
devices within customer premise network 110. Device manager 150 may
transmit this information to network operations component 160. The device
data may include, for instance, configuration information relating to the
communication settings for the radio interface to wireless network 130,
information relating to the stability of customer premise network 110,
information describing error states that occurred in one or more of the
devices at of customer premise network 110, etc.

[0057] Consolidated FW installation data 610 may additionally include
accounting and policy data from PCRF server 430 and HSS 450. Network
operations component 160 may query HSS 450 and/or PCRF server 430 to
obtain information from these network components. For example, policy
rules that are currently set for the customer premise networks 110 may be
obtained from PCRF server 430. Subscriber profiles, subscriber location
information, subscriber IP information, and/or other information relating
to the subscriber associated with a customer premise network 110 may be
obtained from HSS 450.

[0058] The information, and the sources used to obtain the information,
that is part of consolidated FW installation data 610, as described
above, includes examples of possible information relating to customer
premise networks 110. In other implementations, other sources or types of
information may instead or additionally be included as part of
consolidated FW installation data 610.

[0059] Unified FW installation viewer component 620 may include logic to
present consolidated FW installation data 610 to administrators. Unified
FW installation viewer component 620 may, for example, present a
graphical, textual, or other interface that allows administrators to view
and analyze the operation of customer premise networks 110. For example,
unified FW installation viewer component 620 may graphically present an
indication of whether LTE module 320 of a number of customer premise
networks 110 and are connected to wireless network 130 and may display
the current data usage of each of the customer premise networks. In some
implementations, administrators may be able to customize the output of
unified FW installation viewer component 620 to provide a customized view
of the states of customer premise networks 110.

[0060] Analysis component 630 may include logic that provides for the
automatic, manual, or semi-automatic (i.e., in conjunction with an
administrator) analysis of consolidated FW installation data 610. Based
on the analysis, analysis component 630 may make changes to environment
100. Analysis component 630 may, for example, change configuration
information for one or more devices in a customer premise network 110
and/or change the configuration of a network device in wireless network
130. The operation of analysis component 630 will be described in more
detail below.

[0061] Although FIG. 6 shows example functional components of network
operations component 160, in other implementations, network operations
component 160 may contain fewer components, different components,
differently arranged components, or additional components than depicted
in FIG. 6. Alternatively, or additionally, one or more components of
network operations component 160 may perform one or more other tasks
described as being performed by one or more other components of network
operations component 160.

[0062] FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating an example process 700 for
detecting and acting on exceptional events. In one implementation,
process 700 may be performed by network operations component 160.

[0063] Process 700 may include receiving real-time data relating to the
fixed wireless installations (e.g., customer premise networks 110) (block
710). The real-time data may be data that is received as consolidated FW
installation data 610, as discussed with respect to FIG. 6. Although
described as "real-time," in general, the real-time data may include any
data relating to a negative change in operation of network 130 and/or
customer premise network 110, which may be responded-to in time to
correct the negative change. The real-time data may include data relating
to exceptional events at any of customer premise networks 110, such as
power outages, network connectivity trouble, exceptional events relating
to security violations, etc. As another example of the real-time data,
the real-time data may include data relating to network events, such as
exceptionally high data usage, or data that may indicate a network
attack.

[0064] Process 700 may further include determining whether an exceptional
event has occurred (block 710). In one implementation, analysis component
630 may continuously monitor consolidated FW installation data 610 and
determine whether the data indicates that an exceptional event may be
occurring. For example, analysis component 630 may determine whether an
exceptional event is occurring at a customer premise network 110.
Examples of such exceptional events may include: unusually low bandwidth
available to a customer premise network 110, a power outage or other
offline condition at a customer premise network 110, a failing device at
a customer premise network 110, a poor radio connection by LTE module
320, etc. The exceptional events may additionally or alternatively be
exceptional events occurring in network 130, such as a base station 410
nearing capacity; exceptionally high data usage, for a customer premise
network 110, detected at PGW 440; or security threats detected in network
130.

[0065] When an exceptional event is determined to be occurring, (block
720--YES), process 700 may further include taking corrective action
relating to the exceptional event (block 730). The corrective action may
include sending one or more messages, or otherwise taking actions by
network operations component 160, to network 130 and/or a customer
premise network 110. The messages may include configuration updates,
topology changes, or other changes to network 130 and/or a customer
premise network 110 that are designed to correct or mitigate the
exceptional event.

[0066] A number of different messages may be sent or actions taken to
correct or mitigate the exceptional event. The particular message/action
that is generated/performed by network operations component 160 may be
based on the detected exceptional event. In one implementation, the
message/action may be determined based on heuristic techniques in which
each potential exceptional event is associated with one or more rules
that define how to handle the exceptional event.

[0067] As an example of responding to an exceptional event, assume that
the detected exceptional event is that the air interface for a particular
base station 410 is becoming overloaded and that one or more customer
premise networks 110 are attached to that particular base station.
Network operations component 160 may, in response, send a message to the
one or ore customer premise networks 110 to cause the customer premise
networks to disconnect from the particular base station 410 and attach to
another base station 410 within range of customer premise networks 110.

[0068] As another example of responding to an exceptional event, assume
that the exceptional event is that of a poor radio connection by LTE
module 320 of a customer premise network 110. Network operations
component 160 may, in response, determine one or more configuration
changes for LTE module 320 or base station 410 to potentially obtain a
better radio connection to wireless network 130. For example, network
operations component 160 may determine to adjust RF antenna 310 and may
communicate the adjustment to device manager 150. Device manager 150 may
then cause LTE module 320 to correspondingly adjust RF antenna 310.

[0069] As another example of responding to an exceptional event, assume
that the exceptional event is that of exceptionally high data usage or
data usage that is approaching a contractual cap. This exceptional event
may be detected by, for example, PGW 440. Network operations component
160 may, in response, instruct PGW 440 to throttle the data usage of the
customer premise network 110 to a certain bandwidth (e.g., 10 Mbps) or
block the customer premise network 110.

[0070]FIG. 8 is a flow chart illustrating an example process 800 for
optimizing network operation. Process 800 may be performed by network
operations component 160.

[0071] Process 800 may include receiving data relating to traffic for a
number of fixed wireless installations (e.g., customer premise networks
110) (block 810). The data may be data that is received as consolidated
FW installation data 610, as discussed with respect to FIG. 6. The data
may generally relate to traffic patterns, traffic load patterns, and/or
application usage patterns for users of customer premise networks 110.
This data may be data obtained from PGW 440 or device manager 150.

[0072] Process 800 may further include analyzing the data for system level
optimization (block 820). In one implementation, analysis component 630,
either automatically or with the assistance of an operator, may determine
optimizations that may be made to the operation of customer premise
networks 110 and/or network 130. For example, heavily downloaded content
items may be identified so that the content items can be cached at
customer premise networks 110 or moved to higher capacity servers in
network 130 or network 140. As another example, network applications that
are used by a significant number of users of customer premise networks
110 may be identified so that parameters associated with devices in
network 130 may be optimized for these applications. As another example,
the data may be used to identify system level blockages in network 130 or
elsewhere. As another example, trends in traffic may be analyzed to
identify future network evolution or optimizations (e.g., if traffic
through a network device continues to increase over a period of months,
it may be determined when the network device will need to be replaced
with a higher capacity network device). As another example, the
interaction of traffic of mobile devices 120 and customer premise
networks 110 may be analyzed to determine whether the operation of
customer premise networks 110 is adversely affecting the quality of
service of mobile devices 120.

[0073] Process 800 may further include updating or changing network 130 to
implement results of the analysis performed in block 820 (block 830). The
updates/changes may generally include sending one or more messages or
otherwise taking actions, by network operations component 160, to network
130. The messages may include configuration updates, topology changes, or
other changes to network 130 and/or a customer premise network 130 that
are designed to implement the optimizations determined in block 820.

[0074] As an example, assume that a number of video applications are
identified as the applications that are responsible for the majority of
the traffic to customer premise networks 110. In this case, network
operations component 160 may optimize the connection, in network 130, of
the servers associated with the applications to base stations 410.

[0075] As another example of blocks 820 and 830, an analysis of
consolidated FW installation data 610 may indicate that, at certain times
during the day, traffic from customer premise networks 110 tend to
restrict the operation of mobile devices 120. In response, network
operations component 160 may set policies in PCRF server 430 to limit the
bandwidth of customer premise networks 110 during these times.

[0076] The foregoing description of implementations provides illustration
and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the
invention to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are
possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice
of the invention.

[0077] For example, while series of blocks have been described with regard
to FIGS. 7 and 8, the order of the blocks may be modified in other
implementations. Further, non-dependent blocks may be performed in
parallel.

[0078] It will be apparent that example aspects, as described above, may
be implemented in many different forms of software, firmware, and
hardware in the implementations illustrated in the figures. The actual
software code or specialized control hardware used to implement these
aspects should not be construed as limiting. Thus, the operation and
behavior of the aspects were described without reference to the specific
software code--it being understood that software and control hardware
could be designed to implement the aspects based on the description
herein.

[0079] Further, certain portions of the invention may be implemented as
"logic" that performs one or more functions. This logic may include
hardware, such as an application specific integrated circuit or a field
programmable gate array, or a combination of hardware and software.

[0080] Even though particular combinations of features are recited in the
claims and/or disclosed in the specification, these combinations are not
intended to limit the invention. In fact, many of these features may be
combined in ways not specifically recited in the claims and/or disclosed
in the specification. Although each dependent claim listed below may
directly depend on only one other claim, the disclosure of the invention
includes each dependent claim in combination with every other claim in
the claim set.

[0081] No element, act, or instruction used in the present application
should be construed as critical or essential to the invention unless
explicitly described as such. Also, as used herein, the article "a" is
intended to include one or more items. Where only one item is intended,
the term "one" or similar language is used. Further, the phrase "based
on" is intended to mean "based, at least in part, on" unless explicitly
stated otherwise.